Trying to Tame the Tablet

Like many folks, I received a shiny new Nexus 7 tablet for Christmas. This
brought me great joy and excitement as I began to plot my future
paperless life. For most of the evening and an hour or so the next day,
I was sure the new Android tablet would change my life forever. Sadly,
it wasn't that easy. This month, I want to dive head first into the
tablet lifestyle, but I'm not sure if it's really the lifestyle for me. I'll
try to keep everyone posted during the next few months (most likely in the
Upfront section of LJ). And please,
please don't hesitate to send me messages about the ways you
find your Android tablet useful at work/home/play.

At Work

The main reason I decided on the Nexus 7 was because with the leather
case I bought for it (Figure 1), it was small enough to carry
to meetings easily, yet big enough to view full-size documents. I figured with
a tablet computer, I might be able to do away with most of the paper in
my life. I have cabinets full of filed papers that I never use. I do,
however, search my e-mail on a regular basis for communications sent or
received years ago. I want that same accessibility for items that
exist only in paper form now.

Figure 1. My case doubles as a stand.

Paperless: Evernote or Dropbox

I've been trying to go paperless since long before I got a tablet computer.
There seems to be two schools of thought in the paperless
department. There are the Evernote people, and there are the
"every-other-kind"
of people. I have Evernote on every electronic device I own (which is a
significant number), and I have to admit, for raw information, Evernote
is amazing. The problem comes with documents. Granted, documents can
be added to an Evernote note, but they are like e-mail attachments, and
they can't be modified once attached. This means, at least for me, that the
only documents I ever attach are "complete" documents that are printed
as PDF files.

I don't have a good solution for how to handle Word/LibreOffice documents
in Evernote. So, that means I have an inconvenient combination of Evernote
for unformatted information and Dropbox for documents. Thankfully,
both applications run very well on Android, so
although I don't have a
central repository for all my information, at least I can access all
the information from my tablet.

Getting Data In

Evernote includes a really nice mechanism for using a device's camera
for importing digital snapshots of documents, notes, whiteboards and so
forth. Unfortunately, the Nexus 7 doesn't have a rear camera. Thankfully, my
cell phone has a really nice camera, and it also has Evernote installed.
Because
I never intended my tablet to replace my cell phone, this isn't a big
issue for me. I just whip out my phone if I need to import something
optically into Evernote.

My biggest hope with the Nexus 7 was that I could avoid toting around
legal pads and pens to meetings. I tend to take "doodle" notes, so
a laptop really isn't ideal for me at a meeting. (Plus, I tend to become
distracted with a laptop and multitask my way into trouble quite often.)
I researched capacitive styli and found the New Trent IMP62B to be
just about the best option (Figure 2). It's less than $10, and it's
remarkably precise for a stylus with a rather bulbous tip.

Figure 2. This stylus is remarkably precise given the size of its tip.

After buying a stylus, coming up with a note-taking application proved
to be difficult. I almost can get there with a couple apps, but nothing
has been the ideal option for me. The closest I've come to perfection is
Lecture Notes, which has some critical features:

Importing PDF files from Dropbox for annotation during a meeting (for
example,
an agenda).

Exporting directly to Evernote.

Very fine lines when writing.

Simple interface for changing pens, erasing and so on.

I'll admit, it's still not as quick as writing on paper, but for some
quick doodles on a PDF agenda, Lecture Notes does a nice job (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Lecture Notes is a great application if you want to take notes
with a stylus.

My wife actually likes to type on her tablet (an iPad Mini) with the
onboard keyboard. If she's taking notes, she'll just open up Google
Docs and type on the screen. For me, typing on any screen is awkward and
slow. If I have to do any real typing on my tablet, I'll use a Bluetooth
keyboard. At that point, however, I might as well just use a laptop. In
a pinch, it's certainly possible to type a few notes with the on-screen
keyboard, and if you don't have a laptop, a Bluetooth keyboard will help
manage some serious typing. Still, I don't recommend it. Any Nexus-size
keyboards are too small to type well with, and any full-size Bluetooth
keyboards are cumbersome to carry around.

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Hi there - so many reviews of the Nexus 7 out there, yet almost no one mentions the HUGE privacy invasion Android represents. Everything EVERYTHING on your device goes to one giant US for-profit corporation to use in any way they wish. Even when the Nexus 7 is powered off, the darn thing will grab any nearby wi-fi and send make contact. Run a sniffer on the thing - you'll be amazed at what goes out. Read the Android privacy agreement - you abrogate all rights to Google.
Those of use who are blessed by not living in the United States are absolutely appalled at the privacy invasions you folks seem to take for granted on your devices. A sad comment on what has happened to your country.

The fact that there's a blog post and a long discussion on something that should be taken for granted speaks volumes. Not a good catch-up strategy I'd say. I hope Google will rectify this in the next version, including a hires camera on the back. Go to any tourist spot and you'll notice people taking videos with their iPads! What will smaller iPads enable? That's right, more tourists taking videos with them. Remember the days when "calling people" used to be the primary feature on a smart-phone!?
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Shawn, have you tried the gesture typing on the keyboard that came with Jelly Bean 4.2? I find it much easier, you might like it as a stylus replacement. It's nearly identical to Samsung's Swype keyboard.

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